How much is caught on charter trips?

[Leon Roskilly]

I've some information from CEFAS that show that gadoids (cod family) can be returned when bought up from deep water.

 

The balloon that sometimes comes out of their mouth is not the swim bladder, but the stomach, and piercing it will lead to the fish dying.

 

Don't worry about returning a fish that has its stomach out of its mouth. As it goes deeper, it will swallow it back down again!

 

Generally, the swim bladder sometimes suffers from small perforations on the way up, but these repair themselves. The problem can be that air gets into the body cavity and cannot be released.

 

An expert can deflate the swim bladder/release air from the body cavity by inserting a hollow needle into the right place, which helps the fish to go down again, but the fish can easily be mortally wounded by someone who isn't an expert - best left alone.

 

The best thing to do is to bring them up slowly and return them quickly.

 

Data tags fitted to rod and line caught codling, from wrecks, shows that the fish will go down aways, then rest at that depth, then go deeper and rest awhile, taking maybe 3 days to get back to the original depth but coming to no harm, and the tags show that returned fish have susequently spawned

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

ps The NFSA are in the process of putting together a Code of Practice for catch and release fishing.

 

[ 22. May 2005, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Guest jay_con]

Good news.

 

I have released several bigger cod. Usually from shallow water. Im glad to here they should be ok. I'm under the opinion that the bigger fish will only have to avoid the trawlers for a few months untill they can spawn rather than the 3 or 4 years a mop has to survive.

 

I still beleive rod and line effort will have no impact on cod stocks. Given the ever reducing population, that statement could soon be wrong.

[big_cod]

Leon you are exactly right it is the stomach lineing what comes out of the fishes mouths,ling are very bad for this happening 90% of the time they have the lineing hanging out of there mouths even when you bring them up slowly a great shame this happens.there is one fish which never seems to be bothered with this happening a catfish they are off like a rocket when returned.

[Leon Roskilly]

I should have mentioned that when the stomach is protruding through the mouth, don't worry.

 

As the fish goes deeper, it 'swallows' it back down again!

 

Tight Lines - leon

[big_cod]

The trouble is a large majority just dont go down ,they end up on the surface for the sea gulls to pick at, if air is still in the fish they try there best to swim down but just keep comming back to the surface as you said pricking the stomach lining will often kill the fish so you just hope for the best i am afraid.

[Yakity - Yak - u.k.]

Hi All.

 

In the states if a fish comes up with a blown gut/bladder, they stick a barbless hook in its mouth lightly hooked, then send the fish back to the bottom using a heavy wieght cliped on to the main line.

A sharp tug when it all hits bottom, and the fish is returned to the depths.

 

Somthing like that anyway

[Yakity - Yak - u.k.]

Forgot to say.......you would need to make up somthing that was ready to clip on the main line when you needed it to return the fish.

[spasor]

On our recent Langstone trip I caught a smallish tope. When the skipper turned it over to remove my hook, he commented on its deformed lower jaw. It looked as though it had been caught as a pup, and either the hook ripped out whilst fighting, or it had been badly treated on board a previous boat by an unthinking angler. Whichever, the wound had healed and the tope was a very feisty individual! It did everything but jump clear out of the water at the back of the boat. So some fish will recover from bad handling!!

Even if you throw them back and they die, they just become part of the food chain. Nature doesn`t waste, just us humans. :mad:

[Ian Burrett]

Hi Big Cod

I was shown the method of pricking a fish by an Ozzie who was the resident angler and expert fish keeper, for the Deep Sea World at Edinburgh. He pricked all fish as a matter of course and I am guessing he had something like an 90 per cent survival rate. It might be worth having a go as the fish is going to die anyway if you don't

 

Spasor

I guess the Tope had been caught in an automated long liner. These vesssels draw the line through a v block which literally rips the hook out. The Spur dog are kept and the LSD's Tope etc. are thrown back with a very sore mouth. Bloody barbaric if you ask me.

[big_cod]

Ian i will look into what you said we hate the thought that all these fish we are returning are not going to survive,i have quite a lot of regular customers who fish with me and they must put thousands of ling back each year during these festivals .